Pre-season so far

Its been a while since my last post, and as is always the case with AEK, a lot has happened since then. Most recently we’ve played two friendlies, both of which resulted in wins for us (we’ve scored 7 goals in the last 2 games I believe). I haven’t read up too much on either of the games, but it sounds like the team is showing bits of promise here and there, especially certain players in particular. The press in Greece us apparently saying this season should be a walk in the park for AEK, so lets hope they’re correct. We’ve got the potential to see some good things come out of this fresh start for the team, we just have to hope everything goes well (you can never know what to expect with AEK though).

I was in Greece for a month in July, and I noticed two things. First, it was great to see that, despite all thats happened, those who are true AEK supporters are still there for the team, as if nothing has happened. When I listened to people talk, I didn’t get the impression that we were talking about a 3rd division amateur club. AEK is AEK no matter what, that will never change for me and I was so glad to see that hasn’t changed for most people I talked to. It was great playing football matches on Limnos with some friends and others from the village I was staying in. At any given time, at least have the people playing were AEK (the rest we’re spread out between Oly, PAOK, and other smaller teams, PAO fans were pretty much nowhere).

I also couldn’t help but notice the optimism so many supporters had, whether it be about Melissanidis, the young players, the possibility of a stadium. In fact, I think I sensed more optimism from some supporters than I would’ve a year or two ago, when we were still in the 1st division. I just really hope we aren’t all disappointed this time three years later.

As was mentioned in the comments section from the last post, we have a friendly with Omonia in OAKA coming up. Omonia might not be like other teams we’ve has pre-season friendlies with in the past (teams like Benfica and Boca Juniors come to mind), though for the squad we have right now, I think they’ll be a great test.

I imagine that will be the game at which the new kits are revealed. I’ve seen some fan-drawn designs that looked quite nice, and hopefully the real thing will also be pretty impressive. I have no idea what to expect for the jerseys, aside from the fact that they’ll be made by puma (who have not been entirely consistent in the past, in my opinion).